Human Rights and the Rights of Groups

The Charter of the United Nations requires members to promote human rights. The rights in question are largely the rights of individuals, and they are to be promoted in such a way as to maintain the principle of equality and nondiscrimination. In fact, however, on the basis of both international agreements and national policies, many ethnic, linguistic, religious, and other kinds of groups have rights as collective entitiesrights in politics and government, in education, in regulating property ownership and residence, and in economic matters. When groups as such have rights, differentiation occurs between individuals depending on whether they are members. This raises the question which differentiations are discriminatory and which ones are justifiable in the name of the rights of groups.